60 Simple Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers

Most businesses are on Twitter these days, but many still scratch their heads trying to find actionable ideas to increase their Twitter followers.

In this article, I’ll give you 60 simple tips (in 7 categories) to get you more connected with your followers, and increase your genuine Twitter numbers.

Tweetable Tips:

Do you embed your best tweets? Why you should…

Do you follow people who follow you?

Use campaign specific hashtags to market your business

Do you ask questions on Twitter? Why you should…

Short tweets get noticed. Please RT

Do you rapid tweet? Stop it now! Please retweet

Do you do this? Run weekly Twitter contests to get more followers

Get Your Twitter Known

1. Get to know Twitter lingo – If you’re new to Twitter, or want to learn more about Twitter, start with knowing the language. The lingo keeps changing as the platform develops, but here’s 10 basic Twitter definitions you need to know.

2. Make a great Bio – Lots of people will look at your bio to decide whether they will follow you or not. Clearly and briefly write about your company. Keep it friendly, and even add a few quirky (yet professional) comments. Make sure your profile image reflects your brand, too.

3. Keep your Bio current – Refresh your bio with events or business campaigns you are running. If you’ve just made a new webinar, for example, post a link to it from your Twitter bio. Include a simple CTA.

4. Make your Twitter known – Cross promote your Twitter handle on social sites. Set up a Twitter tab on your Facebook page, include it in your Google+ profile, your LinkedIn page, and any other social sites your business has.

5. Promote your Twitter on your blog and website – Embed your live Twitter feed on your website. Be sure you have a Twitter “Follow” button on your site. Make your blog posts easy to share, with a “Tweet this” button.

6. Embed your best Tweets – Twitter lets you embed single tweets now. You can code them directly on your website or blog. (Click on “…More” on the tweet, then click “Embed Tweet”; copy the code and paste into your site.)

7. Promote your Twitter on any printed material – If you use any printed material, such as business cards, flyers, or print ads, make sure you include your Twitter handle to make it easy to connect.

8. Include your handle in your email signature – Don’t forget to include a link to your Twitter in your email signature (just as you would your website or phone number).

9. Tweet to people everyday – Make it a practise to @mention 3 new people a day on Twitter.

10. Use your Twitter account to sign in to other forum sites – You’re likely engaging on other public sites. Sign in using your Twitter account, and your bio will often be shown when you post. If you’re successful on those sites, you’ll get more followers on Twitter too.

11. If you guest blog, include your Twitter handle – If your business marketing includes writing for other sites, make sure you have your Twitter handle in your content marketing bio.

12. Sign up for Twitter directories – Yup, there are Twitter directories, where people go to search for interesting people and business. It doesn’t take long to sign up for these types of listings, they’re free, and it adds another way people can find and follow you on Twitter. Try out sites like: Twello, Wefollow , or TweetFind

Follow People and Businesses

13. Follow people who follow you – When someone follows you, check out their bio’s and return the follow. This is especially cool if you’re well known, or have a great twitter following already. It makes your new followers feel very special. (For example, I followed Ekaterina Walter – the brains behind Intel’s amazingly cool social media strategy, and now CMO of BRANDERATI– and she followed me back!)

14. Follow other people who follow people who are like you – Use Twitter’s “Who to Follow” list, which is catered to you, based on your activity on the site.

16. Get a celebrity or industry leader to follow you – Reach out to industry leaders on Twitter. Mention them, retweet them, and ask them to follow you. When they do, keep in touch. They may just retweet you to their followers.

17. Send a Direct Message to your new followers – Again, this makes your new followers feel like you listen and you care. Though the DM is sort of becoming old school, it doesn’t hurt. Just don’t use DM’s to spam!

Use Hashtags

18. Use hashtags – Twitter was one of the first social platforms to introduce hashtags. They are still very relevant today. Keep them to a max of 3 – otherwise you’ll look spammy, and you’ve only got 140 characters.

19. Use trending hashtags – Monitor trending hashtags – you can see trending tags for the world, and for geographic areas. When you see a trend that relates to your business, engage in that tweet chat by using the tag, and retweeting other people using the trending tag.

20. Use campaign specific hashtags – Create your own tweet community by using campaign, or even business specific hashtags. Promote these as a way for your customers to engage with you and others on Twitter. For example, if you’re running a Twitter contest, use a contest specific hashtag so everyone who enters can connect.

21. Use general hashtags – When you want to extend the reach of your tweets, seek out common hashtags that relate to your tweet topic. For example, if you are sending out a message about your store’s newest location, include the location name as a hashtag.

22. Search for Tweets with business related keywords and hashtags – Do searches for relevant business words (such as your company name). Keep on top of mentions of you and your products on Twitter. Find new hashtags to engage with too.

Use Best Practices

23. Be informative – When you are posting on Twitter, or any social media site, remember the 80/20 rule. Post 80% of your content about lifestyle or information; post 20% of your content about yourself. Tweet information related to your products – but not just your products.

24. Be original – Tweet a lot of your own original content, or other content that would be of interest to your customers.

25. Be inspiring – Tweet quotes of inspiration to connect with your followers. Quotes are some of the most retweeted content on Twitter.

27. Tweet about breaking news – Twitter is commonly used as an instant way to get the news. If there is a global news story, and it relates to your business customers, tweet the news to your followers. Or, get really creative, and be the first to tweet the news, with a branded spin.

28. Ask questions – Questions open up dialogue, and poise challenges to your Followers. Use them as a way to engage and get responses and retweets. This spreads your business brand too.

35. Don’t auto-tweet – Don’t get into the practise of posting the same update to all of your social sites. You can share the same topic, but don’t post it exactly the same. An update on Facebook will read different than an post on Twitter.

Also, if you are using a Tweet scheduling platform, monitor what you’ve scheduled if a major incident happens that’s related to your business.

36. Don’t rapid tweet – Don’t incessantly tweet to your Followers. They really don’t need to know what you are doing every five minutes. Tweet a few times a day, but time out your tweets throughout the 24 hour cycle. (I’ll comment later on when to tweet.)

37. Be a great writer – You only have 140 characters, which means to write succinctly on this site. Get your message out without using a lot of words. Create wit, and write with clarity. (Ok, I love Twitter for this word challenge! I sometimes write out a tweet, and then rewrite it 5 times before I send 1 out. Yes, I’m a word nerd! But it works, try it yourself.)

38. Be a great headline writer – Ok, you really benefit on Twitter from being able to write great headlines. Twitter’s character count kinda means every tweet you make is a headline. Make it catchy and attractive to your followers, and you’ll get retweeted to their followers, and so on and so on. Those followers will start to follow you too.

Engage Your Customer

39. Engage your customer, not your product – Here’s that 80/20 rule again (80% of your content is about your customer; 20% is about your business). Make sure you’re engaging with your customers on Twitter. Yes, you are marketing on the site, but you’re also providing customer service, and showing that you care and listen.

40. RT your followers – Show you appreciate your followers by retweeting good tweets to your followers. You give that follower more exposure, and show you are a business that cares about customers.

41. Tweet about other blog posts – If you find a blog post that has mentioned your business, tweet it, and @mention the blogger who wrote it.

42. Mention followers and great customers – If you have a great customer or follower, @mention them, and something they do. Send this out to your followers too. Mention them in a #ff (follow friday), or suggest your followers follower them.

43. Use the .@mention – Here’s a great tip. Use the .@mention to get your @mentions seen by your followers. If you start a tweet with the person’s username, it is only seen by them. Include a “.” in front of it to make it public.

44. Check your Twitter throughout the day – Your customers want to engage with you on Twitter, make sure you are checking your Twitter at least 3-4 times/ day (or more – think of it like checking your email). Check your interactions and mentions.

45. Respond to @mentions – If someone has mentioned you on Twitter, respond to their comments.

49. Run regular contests to gain momentum – Use engagement tactics like contests regularly to build habits in your Followers, and keep getting your contest tweets shared. Host weekly contests, for example, and use an app that sends a tweet to your entrants’ followers when they enter.

50. Offer exclusive deals – Offer your Twitter followers group deals that they can only get if they follow you.

51. Use sweepstakes and giveaways – Like group deals, offer your Twitter followers the chance to win from you. Host Twitter sweepstakes and giveaways available only to your followers.

53. Use promoted trends and accounts – Use other Twitter ad products, to promote your Twitter account and hashtag trends.

54. Target your ads – Target to your Twitter ads to reach people who are like people who already follow you. Target your ads based on Twitter users’ interests. Geo-target your ads too.

55. Launch a new product live on Twitter – Host a live tweet event to extend the reach of your product launch. Set up a hashtag, and get people tweeting as you launch live. You could use live tweets as regular Q&A sessions too, to connect with your market, and get more followers.